8B *THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY,APRIL21,2003
Running on water
Kansas' Dan Ferguson splashes through the water obstacle during the 3,000-meter steeplechase Saturday at the Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium. The sophomore finished fifth with a time of 9:38.14.
AndySamuelson/Kansan
Iowa State football prepares for season
By Josh Madden
By Josh Madden
iowa State Daily via U-wire
iowa State University
AMES, Iowa — Winning may not be a major concern for the Iowa State football players at this weekend's annual spring football scrimmage, but one thing is: making the starting squad come fall.
With Seneca Wallace gone, the question on people's mind this spring is who will play quarterback for the Cyclones. ISU head football coach Dan McCarney said the position was still wide open, but the spring game would have some bearing on his final decision.
"This game will be a factor in determining a quarterback, but not a big one." McCarney said. "As close as it's been all year and with Waye Terry not even being in the mix with a broken thumb, whoever comes out of this game on top will have an edge, but it'll be a slight edge."
McCarney will even split playing time at quarterback on the first string offense between senior Chris Love in the first half and freshman Austin Flynn in the second half.
"IHiawatha's our starting running back going into the spring game. He's earned it," McCarney said. "Running back's a really healthy position for us, but he's our starter."
"The competitiveness of this team is very impressive," McCarney said. "I love the way they come to work every day."
"That's how close it is," he said. Another position that has had some competition this spring is running back, but as of now McCarney has a starter — last year's leading rusher, Hiawatha Rutland.
Something McCarney has
On the whole, McCarney feels great about how his team looks heading into this weekend's game.
noticed in spring practice is how well his team has improved over the off-season, especially defensively.
"Work ethic has been great, the attitude's fantastic, the seven or eight starters on defense that came back have all played really well and our secondary's the best it's ever been," McCarney said. "There's only a handful of guys that haven't improved."
Senior defensive lineman Jordan Carstens said one of the things the defense had been working on this spring was stopping the running game.
"We've also improved on our red zone and short yardage situations — times where we need big stops," Carstens said. "I think we've really come up big this spring."
Another thing McCarney is looking for in the spring scrimimage is guys who will step up and take control of the team.
"We've lost some real impact players like Seneca Wallace and Jeremy Loyd, but for the most part, most of the team is back and those kids have really stepped it up." McCarmey said.
McCarney said he would treat this game just like a practice in that every player would be under constant watch.
"It will be our final evaluation this spring. We'll be checking every play." McCarney said. "We'll make our final decisions on our starting 11 after the spring game."
Even though winning or losing is not really a concern, McCarney wants the same things out of this game that he would any other.
"We want a clean game without a bunch of penalties or turnovers. I don't want to come out there sloppin' around," McCarney said. "I want to look like a Big 12 program that's won 23 games over the last three years, and a team that's ready to win a lot more games next year."